Bridgestone Sports Co., Ltd.

Pentax Corporation

Bridgestone Corporation

Hoya Corporation

Asahi Kogaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Asahi Kogaku Kogyo K.k.

Pentax Ricoh Imaging Company, Ltd.

Ricoh Imaging Company, Ltd.

Shinichi Kakiuchi

Junji Umezawa

Shuzo Seo

Takashi Maruko

Nobuhiro Tani

Seisuke Tomita

Junji Hayashi

Kunitoshi Ishihara

Nobuhiko Matsumura

Hisashi Yamagishi

Yasushi Ichikawa

Kiyoshi Yamamoto

Hiroshi Nomura

Tasuku Saito

Yuji Hanada

Hitoshi Shimizu

Jun Shindo

Yuichi Kurosawa

Yutaka Masutani

Shinya Suzuka

Kosei Kosako

Shigeru Iwamoto

Takuji Hamasaki

Kohei Iketani

Yutaka Ohsawa

Takuma Sato

Masahiro Inazuka

Nobuya Sakai

Yoshimi Hasegawa

A voltage conversion circuit, comprising: a transformer that converts a voltage input to a primary side and outputs a converted voltage from a secondary side; a switching unit configured to switch on/off of electrification of the primary side of the transformer; and a bypass unit configured to transmit charges from the secondary side to the primary side of the transformer when the switching unit is off, so as to reduce a surge voltage caused on the switching unit.

Voltage conversion circuit, strobe device, photographing device and method of reducing surge voltage

A sequential shooting controller includes both high and low load drive modes, and first and second power-voltage detectors. The high/low load drive modes drive a device under high/low loads. The first power-voltage detector detects a power-voltage by connecting a load. The second power-voltage detector detects the voltage across the device. The first power-voltage detector is actuated at the beginning of sequential shooting before a first image capturing operation starts. The high load image capturing operation starts when the voltage detected by the first power-voltage detector is higher than a first threshold. The low load image capturing operation starts when the voltage detected by the first power-voltage detector is lower than the first threshold. The second power-voltage detector is driven during a high load image capturing operation. The second power-voltage detector is disabled during a low load image capturing operation.

Sequential shooting controller

An optical axis correction apparatus of an imaging device, the imaging device including an imaging optical system having a plurality of optical elements, and an optical element position changing device which changes a relative position among the optical elements to vary a state of an object image formed thereby, the optical axis correction apparatus including an optical element moving device which moves at least one of the optical elements in a plane orthogonal to an optical axis; a memory which stores data relating to a deviation of the object image position in directions orthogonal to the optical axis, the deviation occurring when the optical element position changing device changes the relative position among the optical elements; and an object image position correction controller which drives the optical element moving device based on the data stored in the memory to correct said deviation of the object image position.

Optical axis correction apparatus of an imaging device, and optical axis correction method for an imaging device

An image-capturing apparatus is provided that comprises an imaging device, a support member, a drive mechanism, and a fixed member. The support member supports the imaging device. The drive mechanism moves the support member in a plane parallel to an imaging surface of the imaging device and in an independent first and second directions. The fixed member is placed within a support-member movable-range, in which the support member is moved by the drive mechanism. The drive mechanism induces impact on the support member by engaging the support member with the fixed member.

Image-capturing apparatus and camera-shake compensation mechanism

An optical image stabilizer includes an optical system including at least one image shake counteracting optical element movable in a plane orthogonal to an optical axis; at least one stepping motor for moving the image shake counteracting optical element in the plane; at least one shake velocity sensor which senses the speed of shake applied to the optical system; and a controller which calculates the number of driving pulses for the stepping motor based on shake speed information output from the shake velocity sensor, and drives the stepping motor so that the image shake counteracting optical element moves in the plane to counteract image shake on an imaging surface of the optical system. The controller changes power supplied to the stepping motor in accordance with the shake speed information when driving the stepping motor.

Optical image stabilizer and a method of controlling the optical image stabilizer

A photographic device, includes a shake detector, a shake mitigator, a first commander, and a shake controller. The shake detector detects a device shake, that is, a shaking of the photographic device. The shake mitigator mitigates the effects of the device shake to reduce an image shake that is a shake of a photographed subject image. The first commander commands the photographic device to photograph the subject image. The shake controller controls the shake mitigator so that the shake mitigator refrains from mitigating the effects of the device shake from the point when the first commander commands the photographic device to photograph the subject image, until the point when photographing the subject image commences.

Photographic device with anti-shake function

An anti-shake apparatus for a photographic device includes an angular velocity detector, a position signal generator, a shake corrector, and an exposure time setter. The angular velocity detector detects the angular velocity of the photographic device. The position signal generator generates position signals representing a position of the photographic device by integrating the angular velocity. The shake corrector corrects a shake of the photographic device, based on the position signals. The exposure time setter sets an exposure time of the photographic device. The shake corrector corrects the shake based on the position signals that have frequencies higher than the predetermined cut-off frequency, which is determined in accordance with the exposure time.

Anti-shake apparatus

An illuminating device is used for oral photography and is connectable to a lens barrel provided on a camera. The illuminating device includes a light-emitting surface that has an arc shape, so that a periphery of a mouth being under a nose of a person being photographed can be exclusively illuminated.

Light-shielding device for oral photography

Rotations of a camera around two axes are detected by two gyro sensors. A color temperature of a photographing location is detected by an AWB sensor. One of a plurality of low-pass filters, the cut-off frequency component of which is different, can be connected to one gyro sensor. The low-pass filter which is connected to the gyro sensor, is changed by a transfer switch based on the output result of the AWB sensor, so that a frequency range which is retrieved from the output voltage of the gyro sensor is controlled. With respect to another gyro sensor, a similar operation is carried out. A hand-tremble correcting circuit calculates a driving amount of an image sensor, by which the tremble is canceled, based on the output voltages of the gyro sensors in which a predetermined frequency range was retrieved in accordance with the condition of the photographing location.

Camera provided with tremble correcting function

An illuminating device which is provided with a plurality of light source units is provided. Each of the plurality of light source units includes a light emitting unit having a light emitting device, a first optical system that adjusts an optical path of light emitted from the light emitting unit, an electrode that supplies power to the light emitting unit, and a connecting element that connects the light emitting unit to the electrode and is disposed so as to block a part of the optical path of light from the light emitting unit thus to create an unilluminated area. In this structure, the plurality of light source units are arranged such that unilluminated areas of the plurality of light source units are substantially uniformly distributed over an entirety of an area illuminated by all the plurality of light source units.

Illuminating device for photoshooting

A camera provided with camera-shake compensation functionality that comprises a camera-shake detector, a photographing mode selector, an adjuster, and an anti-shake mechanism. The camera-shake detector detects a quantity of shake of the camera. The photographing mode selector is used to select a photographing mode. The adjuster adjusts output signals from the camera-shake detector, in accordance with the photographing mode selected by the photographing mode selector. The anti-shake mechanism compensates for a camera-shake to be counteracted, based on the output signals adjusted by the adjuster.

Camera provided with camera-shake compensation functionality

A light-amount control device includes a plurality of lighting units each of which emits light for illuminating a photographing area of a photographing optical system. Further, the light-amount control device includes a peripheral light amount data calculator and a lighting unit controller. The peripheral light amount data calculator calculates a peripheral light amount data defining ratios of light emission intensities for the lighting units, to make the illuminance of an image plane of a standard object that has a flat surface being perpendicular to the optical axis of the photographing optical system and having a constant reflecting light ratio, constant when the standard object is illuminated by the lighting units. The image plane is formed by reflected light from the surface of the standard object that enters the photographing optical system. The lighting unit controller controls the lighting units so that the intensity of light at a wider illuminating angle to an optical axis of the photographing optical system becomes higher, based on the peripheral light amount data.

Light-amount control device for photographing

A fluorescent structure is provided on a curved recess plane of a reflector. The fluorescent structure has a shape of a cylinder which is cut by a plane including its central axis and along its longitudinal direction. An inner wall of the fluorescent structure tapers in like a cone from both ends to the central portion of the fluorescent structure. The structure includes a fluorescent material, for example YAG, which converts blue light to white light and diffuses the white light. Blue LEDs are provided close to both ends of the structure. The blue LEDs are positioned such that blue light emitted from the blue LED enters from both ends and is led to the central portion.

Light emitting device

A power circuit for generating a standard voltage based on an input voltage, includes a step-down circuit, a step-up circuit, a voltage determiner, a voltage output unit, and a circuit actuator. The step-down circuit steps down the input voltage to the standard voltage, when the input voltage is larger than the standard voltage. The step-up circuit steps up the input voltage to the standard voltage, when the input voltage is smaller than the standard voltage. The voltage determiner determines whether the input voltage is larger than or smaller than the standard voltage. The voltage output unit receives the input voltage, and outputs the input voltage as a supply voltage when the voltage determiner determines that the input voltage is larger than the standard voltage, and outputs no voltage when the voltage determiner determines that the input voltage is smaller than the standard voltage. And the circuit actuator can detect the supply voltage, actuate the step-down circuit when the supply voltage is detected, and actuate the step-up circuit, when the supply voltage is not detected.

Power circuit

A three-dimensional image capturing device comprises a plurality of laser devices, and an imaging device, such as a CCD, having a plurality of photo-diodes. Each of the laser devices radiates a pulse modulated laser beam so as to detect distance information or data relating to a topography of a measurement subject. The laser beam is radiated onto the measurement subject and a reflected light beam is sensed by the CCD. Signal charge corresponding to a distance from the image capturing device to the measurement subject is accumulated in each of the photo-diodes, and thus the above distance information is sensed. Each laser beam, respectively radiated from each of the laser devices, shares illuminating area at the distance of the measurement subject, so that radiant energy of each laser beam can be reduced by sharing a single distance measurement operation among the plurality of laser devices.

Growing community of inventors

Saitama, Japan

Shinichi Kakiuchi